Thu, Sep 21, 2006 page2

• Cabinet launches broad social welfare initiative

  • By Jimmy Chuang / STAFF REPORTER
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  The Cabinet yesterday announced its "Big Warmth" plan aimed at reducing the gap between the country's rich and poor.

  The plan, with a budget of NT$191.4 billion (US$6 billion) over three years, also aims to provide better care for the elderly and tackle the country's declining population.

  "The `Big Warmth' plan is our policy to take good care of the disadvantaged minority within our society," said Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) at the weekly Cabinet meeting held yesterday morning. "We want to help these people and make them feel as warm inside as if they they were sitting in front of a fireplace in the winter. That was why we named it the `Big Warmth' plan."

  At a press conference held following the Cabinet meeting, Minister Without Portfolio Lin Wan-i (林萬億) said that of the NT$191.4 billion budget, NT$76.22 billion would be spent to decrease the gap between the rich and the poor and NT$46.16 billion would be spent to enhance the government's care for the elderly.

  A further NT$54.86 billion will be spent to address the problem of the nation's decreasing population while the remaining NT$14.17 billion will go toward national health projects.

  Lin said the government's specific goals for the plan included maintaining the unemployment rate below four percent, creating more job opportunities for women and encouraging young couples to have more babies by rewarding them for having additional children. The government would also use the budget to address the financial problems associated with the national health insurance system, he added.

  There are 336,000 foreign workers and 376,000 foreign brides in Taiwan, Lin said, adding that the unemployment rate between January and July was 3.89 percent.

  It is expected that more than 20 percent of the population will be elderly (65 years of age or above) by 2025, he added.

  "If this `Big Warmth' plan can be successfully implemented, it will do the economy a lot of good. We estimate that more than 20,000 job opportunities will be created," Lin said.
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